Amateurs and professional painters are welcome, as I will be introducing the medium of watercolor, while catering to the individual students’ ability levels. Demonstrations will be performed, and great focus will be given to learning techniques.

The course outline includes an introduction to materials: paints, papers, brushes, care for materials, and paint quantity. Focus will be given to inventing the medium for yourself by learning the right amount of control for your style. In doing this, we will explore different techniques: wet on wet, wet on dry, dry on dry painting, color and water saturation, layering, and gradation. We will go over color theory and mix colors from the primaries while learning to address highlights and shadows by working with and without black and white paint.

In terms of subject matter we will be painting from observation. Discussion on composition, and negative space will take place and students will experience painting from still life with different textures and surfaces. All materials will be provided!

Interested in more project examples? Check out students work from the class on our tumblr.

InstructorAllison Maletz is a contemporary watercolor and mixed media artist. She received her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and her MFA from the Slade School of Fine Art, London. She has taught people from age 8 to 80 and currently leads Foundation courses in Drawing and Painting at Marymount Manhattan College and the P.I. Art Center in Manhattan, as well as teaching art workshops in Brooklyn, Manhattan, New Jersey, and London. She has exhibited various mediums in the Liverpool Biennial, New Contemporaries UK, Zoo Art Italy, The Royal Watercolor Society in London, and the Moscow Biennale for Young Artists at the MMoMA. It is her hope that by teaching watercolor she can help to resurrect one of the most well respected and cherished forms of artistic expression to date.